Interlude

On a different planet from the dungeon

All you hear is heavy breathing and the sound of the pick axe falling against the mine walls. Occasionally someone coughs and the rhythm is disrupted. The atmosphere is dark and bleak. Everyone here is a prisoner, mining until they drop dead.

There's a man that stands alone staring down at the group of workers. He's well groomed and dressed warmly. He's in charge of making sure no one does anything but mine the magic ore. If they try to escape or slow down too much he can whip them until he feels they have learned.

They work in twelve hour shifts, get a small chunk of black bread with a small piece of rat jerky and some water. Then they sleep for five hours before starting the cycle all over again. Most of the people here are snatched from small villages or off the busy streets of near by cities. The younger they are the better.

The younger they are the longer they can take the abuse of working in the mine. Currently the oldest is thirty five but he's a recent arrival. Lately it had been harder to find young people to work. Occasionally they would find young women too but it was rare and they tended to be poor mine workers.

They were better as bed warmers. Unfortunately most of the woman that trickled down this low in life weren't very pretty. Right now there were three young women working in the mine. They were very plain and extremely dirty so no one had any untowards thoughts about them.

The sudden snap of the whip made them all flinch but only one unlucky soul was struck. They all sighed when they weren't the unlucky chosen one. The supervisor yelled at the man to put his back into it.

The group sighed as a whole. Again. They just couldn't believe this is where their fates had led them. They all wished they could be anywhere but here. This was not the way they wanted to die when it was all said and done.

Day after day they became weaker and thinner. Weeks passed and then years passed. Most of the group was struggling day to day to survive. They weren't quite sure the exact number of years they had been in this cycle of torture. Over the years some had died but the group always grew to replace them.

In this latest batch of arrivals there's a pair of siblings. Twins to be exact. A boy and a girl. They are only eleven years old. They had strayed too far from their home and ended up being taken by the supervisor of the mine on his way to work.

It had been a split second decision. He saw that he could do it, so he did. It was that simple. There would always be a need for new blood in the mines. Currently they had a group of twenty five people mining at once. One of the largest groups they had ever had.

Fifteen men were middle aged and greying, their waists bending sharply as they mine the dark soil. No longer able to stand straight anymore. They long for death to take them already. Eight of them are rather young men with healthy bodies.

They see their future in the middle aged men they work with, and it terrifies them more than the supervisor with the whip ever could. They still have dreams of rebelling and leaving this awful place. There are only two youngish woman in the group, their long hair is tangled and dirty. Their faces are hollow.

Currently there are five children in this group. Three little boys and two little girls. They look better than the adults do. That's only because they have recently arrived though. In a few years they will look exactly like the people before them.

The twins are terrified of where they have ended up. This was not how they saw their lives playing out. They had intended to go see the street performers to get away from the stress of their fighting parents. They were arguing about what to do with the twins.

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Apparently the twins had some big destiny according to their mother's father. Their father thought it was all insane and disagreed with the way their mom wanted to raise them. They didn't care about any of that. They just wanted to grow up and be happy.

So they had left to watch the street performers. They never considered they would never make it back home again. They hefted the pick axes and let them fall against the mine wall. It was extremely difficult to work in a mine. Even more so for children who had trouble lifting the pick.

The two new children had lash marks on their backs by the end of the day. Their eyes were red and swollen. They just wanted to go home. They missed their family. This place was awful and they could already feel the darkness crushing their souls.

The group of twenty five was locked into a single large room. They all separate and form smaller groups. The two woman grabbed the children and held them close as they trembled. Always scared tonight would be the night they would be raped.

While some of the men did have some thoughts of taking advantage of the women, they didn't think the fight would be worth it. They were already exhausted from mining all day. They didn't have the strength to fight women.

The days passed slowly. The children found it hard to keep up with the pace that was being demanded from them and were often whipped when they couldn't. The twins had grown used to being held by the two women as they slept.

At least they were warm. Every night before they fell asleep they would pray to the system. Hoping it would help them find their way home. It was a few months after they had been taken, when they recieved an answer that shocked them.

[Congratulations! The Goddess Niamh has seen your struggle and has chosen to invite you to her dungeon. It won't be easy but you have a chance to leave this place. If you accept you will be transported away. Do you accept?]

It was strange that they were being invited to a dungeon but the strangest part is that most of the group also recieved the notification. Most began rejoicing but those that didn't recieve questioned their rotten luck.

The people that did not recieve the notification were the old men that were in the twilight of their lives already. The younger men, women and children were all invited to leave. The older men wanted to be angry and hold a grudge, but instead they found themselves rejoicing over the fact that someone would leave this place alive.

They had seen a lot of people drop dead in the mines in the time they had spent here. It was a wonderful change of pace to see someone leave alive. They encouraged the group to leave them behind and just keep them in their memories.

The group slowly began to dwindle as people began accepting the option to go to the dungeon. Adventure awaited them. In a dungeon.

Back in the dungeon

I was admiring my tenth floor when I heard a ding and flinched. I know it's too soon for the group to move to the next floor. It had to be someone coming to the dungeon. I wasn't sure if I was ready though... A part of me never wanted to have another delver ever again.

I can't put it off forever so I pull up my notifications.

[Your patron Goddess has found ten people to invite to the dungeon. She took them from a mine. There are two children who are not old enough to level up. Three young boys, two women and eight men. Good luck.]

Well shit. That's a large group. At least i'm prepared to house twelve people on my first floor. It wasn't long before people started appearing at my entrance. Fucking swell.

Malnourished and frail looking men begin to appear at my entrance before I can come to grips with what is about to happen. I wasn't told they had a grace period but killing unarmed people doesn't sound right. Although. I don't have a weapon drop on the first floor.

So I guess I'm unsure of how to handle this. I guess I can look over my loot drops for the first floor. I don't know what the bears drop. Not that they could kill a bear barehanded. I keep getting distracted. I need to focus on the delvers that are still showing up.

Everyone looks terrible. Thin and bent from who knows how long stuck in a mine.The women and children look a little better than the men do. Not by much though. I put a bunch of food drops from the fourth floor in both of the cabins and some basic clothes so they don't freeze to death. I don't give anyone a spatial ring though.

Greed is a great motivator and I don't want to make anyone do anything crazy over it. I'm a little curious about how many will actually make it to the second floor. I only hold back for kids. Those men and women are fair game.

I'm almost at my floor limit again. I can't have that. I want to build without care. I love being a dungeon core and making amazing floors. Each person that dies in my dungeon unlocks a new floor for me. I haven't figured out any other way to unlock access to more floors.